Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have published with the Taoiseach three commitments which are important in the context of the forthcoming budget. The first is, as I said in reply to Deputy Micheál Martin, an agreed budget of €42 million for a payment on a quarterly basis of €100 per year to people in receipt of the household benefits package. It will be paid to 410,000 households and includes retirees, carers, people with a disability and families in receipt of the domiciliary care allowance for children. That is a significant number and it is a budget commitment.

Some of the NGOs and others I meet regularly were concerned about the free travel pass, which is iconic and much valued by retired people. We gave a commitment that it would continue.

The third commitment we made, which cuts to the heart of the Deputy's question, was that in the budget we would introduce additional measures to support families with children on a social welfare income such as jobseeker's allowance and that we would incentivise people to take up employment as it became available. The great thing about the CSO figures is they show the economy is seriously in recovery. The figures are striking. GDP grew by 5.8% in the first half of this year, while GNP, year on year, was up 9%, which means that we have left the worst difficulties and the collapse of the economy behind. It is not a credit fuelled bubble, which is what happened in the 2000s as the economy recovered.

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